Traditional Approaches to Customer Experience Need to Evolve, New Global Research Finds

PHOENIX - May 2, 2017 - Organizations need to rethink traditional approaches to customer experience management according to a new study sponsored by Axway (Euronext: AXW.PA), a catalyst for transformation, in partnership with industry analyst firm IDC, a leading provider of global IT research and advice. The study, The Role of Customer Experience Networks in Delivering Value-Based Digital Transformation, found that despite customer experience being the top digital initiative for organizations, 69 percent have yet to implement a single view of the customer.

Axway and leading analyst firm find 69 percent of organizations have yet to implement a single view of the customer

The study[1] surveyed more than 600 senior executives in IT, digital and customer experience roles at the largest global enterprises across the U.S., Europe and Asia. The study revealed that customer experience is now the most critical digital initiative for more than 70 percent of enterprises. The study also indicated that customer experience is now replacing product and price as a means to create brand value, distinctiveness and strategic differentiation.

Despite organizations investing in omnichannel strategies, the study found that an omnichannel approach isn’t consistently delivering ROI. Only 14 percent consider the value of omnichannel to be ‘a key differentiator and source of competitive advantage’ conversely, 22 percent say it is just a ‘necessary cost of doing business’.

“Many enterprises have put a lot of investment and effort into omnichannel communications. However, the omnichannel systems of over 4 out of 10 of our research respondents still fail to provide the essential unified and real-time view of customer experience,” said Gerry Brown, research director, software, at IDC. “Omnichannel management and other early market technologies are being superceded by more holistic and customer-centric models – our research reveals that 'customer experience', 'a single customer data view' and 'customer journeys' are all rated as significantly more important as digital initiatives than omnichannel management."

With traditional approaches to customer experience proving to be sub-optimal, IDC and Axway have identified a new approach to meet customer needs – customer experience networks. Leveraging data from a vast array of internal and external data sources in a customer’s journey - including customers, employees, business partners and suppliers - allows organizations to co-innovate with customers and embrace stakeholders in a more strategic and coherent way than omnichannel. The study revealed that traditional internally facing approaches and methods are being replaced by externally facing customer-centric methods, with more than half (52 percent) of enterprises moving very strongly towards ‘collaborative innovation’. Additionally, organizations operating customer experience networks are reporting increased revenue (68 percent).

Driving collaboration and innovation is APIs, of which 73 percent consider being ‘important’ or ‘extremely important’ for the implementation of customer experience networks. In particular, senior executives in industries including financial services, telecommunications and media, and utilities verticals consider APIs to be top priority, with 80 percent of them indicating that APIs are ‘important’ or ‘extremely important’.

“Traditional approaches to customer experience are broken and as our research shows, organizations need to rethink their strategy for competitively achieving digital transformation,” said Jean-Marc Lazzari, CEO at Axway. “For businesses, a customer experience network generates incredible speed, power and agility. They tap into internal business and IT teams, developers, suppliers and partners to initiate new ideas and create a crystal-clear view of the customer.”

IDC interviewed 200 respondents in the US, 60% in IT, and 40% in digital or customer experience management. Seventy percent of US respondents were in organizations with over 5,000 employees so the results reflect a large organization orientation. Key research conclusions are as follows:

• Overall, the US is not significantly ahead of our countries in their adoption of CX Networks. The percentage of US companies operating CX Networks (28%) is slightly lower than in other countries. However, the adoption intent is evident, as 48% of US corporations consider CX Networks to be extremely important/essential which is higher than the norm (40%), and the US also shows stronger intent to implement CX Networks this year (2017).
• 'A single customer view' was 'extremely important' for 32% of US respondents, which is 10% higher than average and 35% have implemented 'a single customer view', which is also higher. In addition, 40% of those who plan to implement 'a single customer view' will do so in 2017 – again, a much higher proportion.
• US corporations show a higher propensity to use APIs 'as an enabler of co-innovation through your organization`s value chain' (46%). The key API challenges US corporations are facing are security and regulatory requirements, and concerns around corporate governance of APIs, the latter being notably more important than in other countries.

About the Study

The study, The Role of Customer Experience Networks in Delivering Value-Based Digital Transformation, examines the state of customer experience management. The study included participation from 602 senior executives in IT, digital and customer experience roles from large enterprises, 62 percent of which have more than 5,000 employees. Respondents were evenly spread across a variety of sectors including business services, financial services, government, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, telecommunications and media, transportation and utilities.

 

To learn more about how to create immersive digital experiences using customer experience networks, read about the latest enhancements to Axway AMPLIFY™, here.

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About Axway

Axway (Euronext: AXW.PA) is a catalyst for transformation. With Axway AMPLIFY™, our cloud-enabled data integration and engagement platform, leading brands better anticipate, adapt and scale to meet ever changing customer expectations. Our unified, API-first approach connects data from anywhere, fuels millions of apps and delivers real-time analytics to build customer experience networks. From idea to execution, we help make the future possible for more than 11,000 organizations in 100 countries. To learn more about Axway, visit www.axway.com.